work expects me to work through unpaid dinner hour

DVardysShadow

pinkkiss wrote: »

And the principle of it wasnt the money ... it was the fact that the company never relax about our working hours so why shuld we ..
if your 20 mins late in the morning, your made to work the 20 mins back at the end of the day...
but if your stuck on a call and leave 20 mins late at the end of the day you dont get the time back.
If we're 1 minute late logging back into our phones after a break its all noted in the late book ...
And them insisting i came in to work before the speach this morning. They wanted us to take calls until 8:15, then we could log out and go and catch the coach. I travelled a hour to take 15 minutes worth of calls! If i got a lift with my collegue, we wouldnt have to leave our homes until 9 o clock.

Maybe this is all fair enough, after all they're only expecting us to work the hours we agreed to when we accepted the job.
But then again, we're only expecting the breaks they agreed when we accepted the job.
It was never an issue before they decided we couldnt have our paid dinner hour.

This isnt the sort of company where missing your dinner is even appreciated, they only notice anything if we owe them time. Like somebody pointed out, i'm on a low wage and dont see why, if im available to work the hours ive agreed to, i should do what they want me to in my dinner hour too. it was their choice to send us on this speach, we didnt ask to go, so why should we sacrfice our hour for it

Thanks for the replies anyway, really wasnt expecting the thread to get this long !

Thanks for coming back and well said. It looks like a give and take company. You give and they take.

speedbird1973

This thread HAS gone on hasn't it!!

Maybe from my perspective I just can't get my head around how things at your end of the wage spectrum work. But why wouldn't you be interested if your company is taking over someone else or merging with them? it your business is creating jobs rather than losing them it's a good thing. Are you really not interested in your security?

you seem to have made it back from the experience in one piece! you were never going to take in what was said, and you were never going to enjoy your free lunch. be honest!which insurance company is it? I do a lot of work with Aviva, Axa and RSA, they all seem like excellent employers. Carphone Warehouse is the only call center enviromnent I've walked through and thought "jesus!"

moneysavingexpert79

Zazen999 wrote: »

As I said, still happy to misguide people. Advising people to go off sick every time they don't like something is perhaps a bit of a cop out as:
a - they aren't sick [and thus now a liar]
b - they have already expressed dissatisfaction thus going off sick tends to mark them out and will grab their manager's attention.

If the lady was genuinely aggreived (which I am thinking she is) then the day off would be for stress as a result of having to do forced work, unpaid. Therefore, she wouldn't have been a liar.

It is obvious that the employer has tried to wangle their way out of this. More fool them. Good luck pinkkiss, although I don't think you'll need it. Justice prevails!!!

Oldernotwiser

pinkkiss wrote: »

And the speach was in no way about redundancies haha, it was a bragging speach about how well the companys doing, and how we've merged with another company which means more profits, jobs blah blah nothing useful

!

And this in a recession - what an amazing attitude!

moneysavingexpert79

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

And this in a recession - what an amazing attitude!

Oh you're such a butt muncher! What do expect her to say: "Oh, isn't that superb Mr Manager! That means our jobs will be secure Mr Manager! Arn't our senior management more valuable than pure gold itself Mr Manager! I think this meeting was a superb use of company time and I don't mind giving up my lunch hour to hear this unlike some rebels Mr Manager! And those mustard sandwiches - mmm-mmm. I can't believe you didn't charge us for them - you did after all go through the hassle of ordering them for us! OH THANK YOU MR MANAGER! I knew they wouldn't ship all our jobs to India, our senior management care too much for us!":rotfl:

surreysaver

Has the coach travel been risk assessed? Are there any staff that suffer from travel sickness? Risk of deep vein thrombosis from sitting down in a cramp seat?

Are the big wigs aware that staff are missing out on legal entitlements to breaks by attending the lecture? If not, make sure you tell them. Your managers probably lie as much to the big wigs as they do to you. The big wigs probably think everything is hunky dory in the lower grades due to lies told by middle management.

When you get on the coach, you could suggest that the driver smells of alcohol. Call the police and have him/her breathalised. That should hold up proceedings. Or while you're at the lecture, you could ring up the bus company and cancel the coach. That should disrupt your manager's plans - that way there will be no staff back at the office! Or simply just take your entitlement to lunch when you get back.

Too many employers these days pay minmum pay, give minimum breaks - they act only just legally. So employees should make sure they take what is legally theirs.

Zazen999

moneysavingexpert79 wrote: »

If the lady was genuinely aggreived (which I am thinking she is) then the day off would be for stress as a result of having to do forced work, unpaid. Therefore, she wouldn't have been a liar.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

It is so terribly hard, eating crisps, isn't it? Nightmare.

Zazen999

surreysaver wrote: »

Too many employers these days pay minmum pay, give minimum breaks - they act only just legally. So employees should make sure they take what is legally theirs.

As mentioned; this employer pays for a 20 minute break every day, for the OP. Terrible behaviour.

firesidemaid

wish we could have a trip out like that! we often have lunchtime talks and bring our own lunches.

is there opportunity for or would you like to do something different within your company or get promoted?

do they offer rewards for money-saving or cost-efficiency ideas?

are there any other perks, discounts etc that you get for working there?

surreysaver

speedbird1973 wrote: »

Maybe from my perspective I just can't get my head around how things at your end of the wage spectrum work. But why wouldn't you be interested if your company is taking over someone else or merging with them?

To be honest, a lot of employees simply are not bothered by such things - if they were, they'd be in management! A lot of people go to work to earn money - not to be asre lickers!